The present invention relates generally to air conditioning systems for vehicles, and more particularly to secondary loop air conditioning systems.
In a typical secondary loop air conditioning system for a vehicle, a primary loop may include an engine driven compressor mounted for coupling to a front end accessory drive, a condenser mounted in a condenser, radiator, fan module (CRFM), an accumulator and expansion valve mounted separate from the compressor and condenser, and a refrigerant-to-liquid chiller mounted separately from the other components. The typical secondary loop air conditioning system may also include a secondary loop having a liquid-to-air heat exchanger mounted in a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) module, a liquid reservoir and a pump for pumping the liquid through the chiller, heat exchanger and reservoir. While these secondary loop systems provide for some additional flexibility in configuring and operating the air conditioning system, they also add extra components and add additional packaging concerns when locating the components in the vehicle. Moreover, they may still require nearly as much refrigerant in the primary loop as conventional single loop refrigerant systems.